Pan de Yuca de Mayultiaguis

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Clay comal from Oaxaca, or a heavy cast iron comal as a second choice
• •Box grater with a fine side, or a stone metate if you have one
• •Banana leaf for pressing and transferring
• •Tortilla press lined with banana leaf (optional, for even disks)
• •Embroidered cotton servilleta for holding the finished bread

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the yuca

   Peel the yuca with a sharp knife. The skin is thick and brown and the pink layer underneath comes off with it. Cut the root into chunks, slice each chunk lengthwise, and pull out the woody fibrous cord that runs down the center. That cord is bitter and tough and it has no place in this bread. Rinse the chunks well under cold water.

   Sweet yuca, the kind sold at Mexican mercados, is what you want. Bitter yuca contains too much hydrocyanic acid and must be processed differently. If you bought yuca and it smells sharp or chemical, it is the wrong variety. Take it back.
2. 2

   Cook and grate

   Place the yuca chunks in a pot, cover with cold water, and add a pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, until a knife slides through without resistance. Drain well. Let the chunks cool until you can handle them. Grate the cooked yuca on the fine side of a box grater while it is still warm. The texture you want is fluffy and fibrous, not pasty. In Mayultiaguis the women grind it on a metate until it forms a fine, almost powdery mass.

3. 3

   Build the dough

   In a wide bowl, combine the grated yuca, masa harina, melted manteca, toasted ajonjolí, and salt. Work it together with your hands. Add warm water a tablespoon at a time, only as much as you need for the dough to come together into a soft, pliable mass that holds its shape when pressed. La manteca es el sabor here, and the masa harina gives the dough enough body to hold on the comal. The dough should feel like damp sand pressed into a patty, not like wheat dough.

   The yuca releases its own starch as you work it. If the dough feels too wet, leave it to rest for ten minutes and it will firm up. Do not panic and add more masa. You will dull the yuca flavor.
4. 4

   Form the flatbreads

   Pass a piece of banana leaf over an open flame for a few seconds, until it darkens and softens. Cut it into squares the size of a small plate. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions. Place one portion on a banana leaf square and press it flat with the heel of your hand or a tortilla press lined with the leaf. Aim for a disk about a quarter inch thick. The edges will crack a little. That is the right texture. Smooth wheat-bread edges are not what this is.

5. 5

   Heat the comal

   Heat a clay comal over medium until you can hold your hand a few inches above it for only three seconds. Rub the surface with a small piece of manteca on a folded cloth. A clay comal is the right tool here because it holds an even, dry heat the way a metal pan never will. If you only have cast iron, use it, but lower the heat slightly because cast iron runs hotter at the surface.

6. 6

   Bake on the comal

   Lift one flatbread on its banana leaf and lay it leaf side down on the comal. After about three minutes, the leaf will release easily and you can peel it off. Cook the bread directly on the comal for another four to five minutes per side. The surface should turn pale gold with darker spots where it touches the hot clay. The interior cooks through to a soft, slightly chewy crumb. Press the edge gently with your fingertip. If it springs back, it is done. If it dents, give it another minute.

7. 7

   Rest and serve

   Stack the cooked flatbreads inside a clean cotton servilleta, the embroidered ones the women in the Sierra weave on backstrap looms. The cloth holds the warmth and the slight humidity that keeps the bread tender. Eat them within an hour of cooking, with a jícara of chocolate de agua frothed with a molinillo, or set them at the foot of the altar for the visiting souls on the night of November first. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Buy yuca that is heavy for its size with no soft spots and no gray streaks in the white flesh when you scrape the skin. A bad yuca smells faintly fermented and turns blue-gray when cut. No me vengas con atajos here. Frozen yuca chunks from the supermercado are an acceptable compromise if fresh yuca is not available, but the texture will be slightly wetter and you will need a touch more masa harina.
• •The manteca de cerdo should be the real thing, rendered from pork fat, not the white shortening sold in plastic tubs. If you can find manteca from a Oaxacan or Michoacan butcher, even better. The flavor of the rendered pork fat is the difference between a flatbread that tastes alive and one that tastes flat.
• •If you are making this for a Día de Muertos altar, leave one flatbread uncut. The whole disk is what the souls receive. Cut bread is for the living.

Advance Preparation

• •The yuca can be boiled and grated one day ahead, wrapped well, and refrigerated. Bring it back to room temperature before mixing the dough.
• •The dough itself does not keep well. Mix and bake the same day. The yuca starch breaks down overnight and the texture turns gummy.
• •Cooked flatbreads can be stored wrapped in a cotton cloth for up to one day. Reheat on a dry comal for one minute per side. They do not freeze well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 70g)